Feather-Reading
by Summer Leigh Wind
Summary: There's a lot to be said about Robins, but it's also important to remember that what resides in Doves matters even more. One-Shot.


**_Feather-Reading_**

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><p>In a room furnished simply with a bed and dresser that held a small assortment of girlish things (a doll, a photo of a family, several hair clips and ribbons) there was a child sleeping in the bed. Arms raised above her head, the girl tucked beneath a quilt gave a soft snort as she heard a score of morning birds begin to titter and squawk outside her bedroom's window. Sitting up, Maria Santiago turned her head and frowned. Opening the window to her room, she screamed at them "It's <em>sábado <em>you stupid birds!"_  
><em>

They scattered faster than a group of boys who broke a window playing stick-ball in the street.

Giving an appreciative harrumph as she flopped back down on her bed, Maria shifted so her dark locks could act the part of a curtain and shield the morning light from her eyes as she dozed back to sleep for all of ten minutes when-

It was another bird. However, it did not titter, squawk or squall; it wasn't even tweeting. No, what this bird was doing was singing_, _Maria could hear the rise and falls of the story just like she did in the hymns belted by the choir at church.

Getting up, she propped her elbows on the windowsill and stared out with parted lips. Her view of it was clear, a red-breasted robin on the clothes line running from the fire escape to the apartments adjacent to her family's own. Smiling at the bit of color in the gray morning of late winter, the girl got out of bed and dressed in her favorite blouse with the lace collar and a complementary skirt before running to her mother to tell her of what she saw.

"Mama!" She yelled as she came out of her room, hair unbrushed and buttons done up wrong on her blouse. "Mama! There was such a pretty _pájaro _outside my room! It sung a song that was so uplifting that I could have sat and listened all day. I really could have!"

Finishing with the ironing of her two oldest son's uniforms and their father's work shirt the woman replied "What kind of _pájaro mi hija_?"

"A robin!" Maria answered with a smile. "His chest was a lovely shade of red."

Staring distantly across the family's apartment, the woman absently ran her fingers over the gray fabric of her oldest son's robe shirt. What had it been that her mother taught her as a girl about a singing robin? Ah, yes, _A robin singing in the open means good weather is coming._

"Was it hidden from your view at all?" She asked her daughter.

The girl, eleven next week, shook her head at her mother and replied "No mama, the _pájaro _was right their on the clothes line!"

"I think this gray weather is almost past, _mi hija_," Maria's mother grinned as she left her laundry to straighten out the girl's blouse.

Letting her mother rework the buttons of her shirt, Maria asked, "how do you know mama?"

"_Mi madre _taught me when I was young back in _México,_" her mother explained. "She knew a great many truths that could be found from birds."

Frowning then, Maria asked "Is that like divination? Alberto says it's all a bunch a rot."

"No," the woman answered as she straightened herself back up and ran a hand down her daughter's thick locks. "It's much more reliable than divination - not once was she ever wrong. It's why the farmers came to her instead of going to the town north of us to buy almanacs to learn when to get ready for spring."

"She was never wrong..." the girl murmured. Then, Maria's thick brows flickered up like a rising sun on her pale skin, "Not even once, mama?"

"No," her mother told her as she gave her a small push back. "Stop asking questions and brush your hair. When your papa gets back from the corner store he's going to expect you at the table for breakfast."

"_Si _mama," the girl sighed as she hurried back to her room. Looking out her window for a third time that morning, Maria was disappointed to find the robin gone and all that there was to see was a clothes line weighed down with small icicles.

The next week, the bitter gales were gone. The week after, the skies weren't so gray and a few days more she saw a bit of green begin to sprout in the flower box outside her family's kitchen window.

And when she saw three robins squabbling over a bit of bread on the street on her way to school the morning after she saw the growing flowers, Maria was reminded of what her mama had told her about singing robins and gray weather leaving.

Maybe, her mama was right. Robins could tell you something true after all.

* * *

><p>The streets of Corpus Christi busy with slightly more foot-traffic than usual that evening, Maria took joy in what it meant. It was valentines day! The second best day of the year (the first being the Fourth of July) where people sent love notes and flowers to those they liked. Plus, the parties! At thirteen, this was going to be her first one and so her parents had sent her brother to accompany her to it. He would stay there at the party with her to make sure no boys behaved untoward to her. As she walked along side her brother, Alberto, Maria whistled a cheery tune despite the slouch to her older brother's shoulder. Pink hair ribbon dancing along the peripheral of her vision, she looked to her right and saw it was her cousin, Lucena. <em><br>_

"Ah! _Mi prima_!" She said with a laugh. "I didn't see you come up beside us! Have you been practicing your Indian-walk, Lucena?"

Round face merry, the other girl replied "Maybe, _mi prima_." Looking around Maria then, her cousin inquired "What has our Alberto down this week?"_  
><em>

"Esma dumped him when she found our family was Catholic," she explained unflinching and bored.

She was surprised Esma had stuck around as long as she did being almost all _gringo_ besides her mama who was the daughter of Spanish immigrants. Esma been raised Lutheran and everyone _knew _girls raised in protestant faiths looked down their noses at Catholics. Besides, once Maria's _abuela _learned her brother's ex-sweetheart was half-spanish she'd have spit on their relationship and called Esma a worthless girl.

Clucking her tongue, Lucena reached around to pat Alberto's sharp shoulder and exclaimed with false sympathy, "Oh _mi primo_! How _horrible_!"

"Alberto, you dated her for two weeks and we are going to a Valentines's party; stop moping. I'm sure you'll meet a lovely girl there," Maria said when Alberto reacted minimally to their cousin's mock-apologies.

"But she was _mi amour_!" Her brother whimpered rather dramatically.

Rolling her eyes, Maria caught sight of a pretty red-breasted bird on a fence post. "Ah, look at that robin! Isn't he a lovely specimen?" She exclaimed to her cousin and brother as her adoration for the little creature captured her and willed her to make note of its existence (as well as leave her brother's angst behind).

"I hope that wasn't the first _pájaro_ you saw today!" Lucena teased with a gentle jab to her ribs. "I heard my sister gossiping with Tina from across the hall and _she _said that if you the first _pájaro_ you see on Valentines is a robin you'll marry a _marinero._"

"I wish _I _was a _marinero _and that Esma had seen a robin when she woke up," Alberto mumbled.

Scoffing, Maria said, "That's just superstition! And Alberto, don't be ridiculous, you have thalassophobia; if you were a sailor you'd never be able to leave the hull of your boat without fainting while sailing the oceans."

"At least it would mean Esma and I would still end up together!" Alberto cried.

Giggling at the melodramatic boy, the girls surpassed him and let him be his own sympathizer as they talked about the boys who would be at the party and decided which they were going to dance with and poked fun at the ones that didn't make the cut for being worthy dance partners. Soon enough, they were taking the steps of their family's church two at a time with Alberto ambling behind.

Going into the community hall, the girls took seats along the young ladies side of the dance floor and watched their brother and cousin meander over to the treat table. There, he almost bumped into a short girl that Lucena swore was in her sister's year at _la Academia de jóvenes Brujas y magia. _

The girl and Alberto blushed, both thoroughly knocked from their stupors and embarrassed at their self-absorbed behavior. Leaning in close to her cousin's ear, she whispered "Lucena, do you think..."

"_Si_!" She squealed as the round-faced girl turned her face to show her favorite cousin her wide grin. "Oh _si_!"

Two months later, Alberto introduced the girl, Jesusa, to her mama and papa. Maria's parents liked her and her helpful fingers immediately and tell Maria's brother they approve of his _novia_.

The next fall, Alberto seventeen and Jesusa sixteen, wed at family church - she wearing her mother's wedding veil and her brother put their papa's mama's ring on Jesusa's finger.

Everyone clapped for them and their uncle Rodrigo releases two doves for the couple as they walked down the church steps to their waiting carriage.

"Doves carry the souls of lovers, you know," Maria's cousin, Savanna, whispered to her.

Smiling at her elder, Maria tucked that pearl away and recalled what her other cousin, Lucena told her about robins and sailors. It seemed to her you didn't need a bird to find true love, just a caring heart and sweetness to draw a good boy in.

* * *

><p>Just a few days past fifteen, Maria couldn't have felt more out of place in her own home. Her mother was busy lavishing attention on her oldest brother Rico who'd made it onto the Sweetwater All-Stars team. She'd just turned <em>fifteen, <em>but no one had celebrated it at all! Instead, all they could talk about inside was Rico and how he'd always been such a good boy. Athletic boy. Sporty boy. _Smart _boy. And blah, blah, blah...

Plus that didn't even take into account her new nephew Severo that was being passed around to all the aunts and uncles and cousins because this was his first visit with the family since her brother Alberto moved himself and Jesusa out of Corpus Christi to pursue a job as a teacher of Magical European History at _la Academia de jóvenes Brujas y magia _across the border in _México._

And wasn't thatembarrassing? Having your brother for a _maestro__. _

Blowing a messy strand that had escape from her bun, Maria glared out at the warming world just past her apartment's fire escape, Maria wished she'd stayed at school for the weekend instead of coming home. At least at school her friends would still be talking about all the fun things that came with being fifteen. Like dating boys for _real. _"Stupid _chicos_!" Maria growled in sudden frustration as she stood up and thrust the upper part of her body over the safety railings.

"Hey there _hermana_," someone from behind greeted, which caused Maria to gasp and twirl around. It was Rico.

Gape mouthed, she didn't know what to say.

Smiling at her in a way that made the scar he got as a child on his forehead wriggle, Rico remarked "You're upset with us, aren't you?"

"We should be celebrating _mi cumpleaños, _but...no. It's really not bothering me as much as-" she covered her mouth and looked away.

Rico squeezed in next to her and wrapped one of his well-toned arms around her shoulder as he pressed "What's got you in dire straits?"

"It's..." she peaked up through her lashes and wondered how Rico would take her interest in a muggle fishmonger's son. "It's a _chico,_" she admitted. I see him on my way to the vegetable stand where I get mama tomatoes. He's handsome and he'll talk to me, you know? He always has a big tale for the fish his _padre's_ selling."

Eyes twinkling, her oldest brother laughed and hugged her even closer. "Ah-ha! That's easy to fix!"

"Really?"

He nodded. "All you have to do is ask him out!" Rico declared.

The idea was scandalous. Girls weren't supposed to - it wasn't - she blushed scarlet and hissed, "I can'tRico! It's not proper!"

Pulling away, her older brother didn't say anything for a long breath before he finally met her gaze straight on and imparted to her with the knowledge of a man, "sometimes love isn't proper. Sometimes, you have to take a step just a toe too far to get what you want."

"I don't-"

Rico pointed out to something mostly gray, but slightly red just a little bit in the distance. "See that there?" He asked her.

Realizing it was a robin, Maria perked up and concurred "I do."

"I learned a long time ago the first robin of spring is good luck, make a wish on it and it just might come true;" her brother declared.

Maria thrummed her fingers on the metal of the fire escape. She wasn't a little girl and this almost sounded like a childish game, but...what if her brother was right? What if this first robin of spring _was _good luck? Did Maria really want to let it slip through her fingers?

No. She didn't.

So, closing her eyes, Maria prayed to everything and anyone that when she asked the fishmonger's son out next weekend he'd agree to a dinner with her family.

And a weekend later when the teenager smoothed out her skirt before she went to the stand belonging to the fishmongers', Maria felt confident. She asked the son to step aside with her and with a hot face asked:

"Would you like to come to my family's apartment for dinner tomorrow night?

Surprised, but pleased, the fishmonger's son agreed to dinner. "Sure! That would be nice." He grinned with his snub nose flaring cutely.

Elated, Maria swore never to doubt Rico again about luck and robins.

* * *

><p>Staring at the altar where they will be wed next month, Maria turned to Pablo as the priest went on and on about the son's resurrection and whispered "Did you know that Robin's breasts are red because they tried to removed the thorns from the Crown of Thorns placed upon Jesus's head?"<p>

His nose twitching with a snort, her fiance shook his head.

Taking his hand to hold in her own, Maria commented "They're a good bird, if you think about it. They loved the son just as much as we and tried to ease his human suffering."

Pablo brought his face so close to her that she could feel his hot breath on her ear. "I think your _tio _is glaring at us _mi amour_."

"_Mios Madres_," Maria tittered as she sank a little in the pew. "He's not afraid to tell _mi madre _on us either!"

Pablo chuckled and whispered "Just kidding."

She slapped his arm.

He winced and bit back a yelp.

Maria's satisfaction was heavenly.

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><p>Whistling a cheery tune as she walked out the backdoor to the yard of her and her husband's new home with a basket of laundry in hand, Maria paid little attention as to where she was walking due to her thoughts being on the letter from her husband inside. He was at sea right now and would be for the rest of the week as he helped his uncle in his fishing business.<p>

Reaching the clothes line, she did a quick glance around before she took out her wand and cast a quick notice-me-not charm and then used it to attach her damp clothes to the lines to dry. She fingered the wood and thought again of Pablo. He didn't know she was a _bruja _and unless their baby proved to be one, she would say nothing as to keep in agreement with the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.

Even though Pablo wasn't here right now which lent to the minor pleasures of easy housework with magic, his absence always made her heart ache with loneliness. However, this time it was alright for once because Maria wasn't _really _all alone anymore. She touched her belly. The doctors had confirmed it just a month ago. She and Pablo had been so happy when the doctor told them! A baby! They were going to have a baby! And when Maria had told her mama after getting the confirmation from the doctor had been the very best moment so far in her pregnancy; the way her _madre's_ eyes glowed with pride that was insurmountable.

Already dreaming of a future thousands of years away, Maria had wondered if she'd look like that when her _niño o ni_ña __told her they were going to have a baby._  
><em>

Maybe she would get to time travel too then, remember the day she found out she was pregnant like it'd happened just yesterday instead of ages ago as it did right now-

Something crunched beneath her bare foot.

Curling her lips back, she lifted her foot away to see that it was an egg. A blue one. Looking up, she realized she was beside a sapling tree and there was a half-broken nest within its' spindly branches. Peering in, she saw one egg remained. Her heart gave a sad pang. Oh how lost this mother bird was going to be. One of her eggs missing and now gone forever.

"I'm sorry little one," she whispered to the mess laying in the scraggly grass. Silence answered her, but she expected as much and went on with her chores.

A few hours later, she walked across the street to borrow a half-cup of flour and was invited in by an older woman who's four children were all in school - three of them at her old _academia _until Saturday. Smiling at the woman, she asked:

"How do they like it there? I had enjoyed it - that is, I did until _mi hermano _came to teach there when I was fifteen."

Laughing lightly in a way that showed off her yellow teeth, the woman replied "The girls enjoy it - all my oldest can talk about it her European History teacher's class! Somedays I swear she might have a crush on him!"

Smiling, Maria admitted, "that's _mi hermano; _age has made him handsome."

"Ah, lucky man."

Putting down her glass of lemonade, she agreed. "He is," Brushing her hand over her foot then, she remarked absently "I can still feel the prick of the shell from the egg I stepped on today."

"You stepped on an egg?" The old woman repeated.

"_Si, _a blue one."

Clucking her tongue, the woman sighed. "A robin's egg, hm? I remember an old anecdote I learned as a child...let's see, it was like this: 'if you break a robin's egg, something of yours will be broken soon.'"

"I wonder what will be broken," Maria hummed. "I wouldn't mind if the hideous plate _mi tio _bought for my wedding was broken."

Her eyes hooded, the older woman patted the young one's hand. "For your sake, I hope so as well."

Maria's hideous plate would be fine. But the same couldn't be said for her heart.

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><p>The next morning, Maria woke up alone in her wedding bed to the sound of robins squalling in the branches of the sapling outside her home. Turning over, she thought nothing of it and went back to sleep without noticing the gathering of clouds in the distance.<p>

If Pablo had been in bed with his wife, he would have told her, "A robin singing in the branches means a storm is on its way." But he wasn't. Instead, he was out in the ocean waters fighting the downpour and rocky waves to secure the sail of his uncle's ship.

Slipping on the slick boards of the ship, the boom swung left and swept Pablo off his feet and overboard. Seeing this, his cousin Javier screamed for his father.

"Papa! Papa! Pablo's been sent overboard! Papa!"

The few men on the fishing boat looked for their lost mate in the churning waters, but it was too late. Pablo was already half way to the murky depths of the gulf.

Looking at his papa, Javier cried "What are we going to tell Maria?"

"_La verdad_," the man answered with grave features. "_Ella necesita saber._"

Sighing at this, Javier nodded. "_Si, _papa."

When they came to shore the next day, Javier visited Maria and told her what happened to Pablo.

The woman screamed so loud that a neighbor's dog halfway down the road began to howl in anguish right along side her.

Maria's heart was broken.

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><p>Laying in her wedding bed in the early morning, Maria cried over the face of her infant son. This baby - Pablo junior - would never know his <em>padre<em>. Would never see that he had his papa's eyes or learn to fish while guided by his _padre's _large hands.

Maria didn't know if she could stand such a thing. A lifetime without Pablo beside her, a lifetime without his touch, a lifetime without his _love._ How could she live like that? Without a husband? Without a father for her son? Or a home for her boy to grow up in?

It was thanks to Pablo they lived as well as they did, without him, she'd have to move back in with her mama and papa downtown...her son would only know the occasional trip to the park instead of waking everyday to a lawn just outside his window to see and play on. How could she do that to her baby? Maria didn't know if she could.

Maybe she could figure out a way to make an income for them both. She'd done exceptionally well at herbology in her school days, would people buy her plants if she grew and sold them? It was worth a shot, the woman felt, if it would mean her and her son could stay in the house their husband and father bought for them.

But...maybe it would be better if she just ended all the problems now. They were close enough to the ocean all she would have to do is walk there and by the sun's rising she would be at the ocean edge. Maria could take her son and herself out so far in those blue seas that return became impossible and-

A flutter came from the window.

She looked.

And then, Maria sobbed.

It was a dove.

"_Doves carry the souls of lovers, you know."_

Pablo was right here with her. He might not be able to come home and hold her or see their son, but he was _here_. Watching and protecting them from the other side of life. Maria knew this wasn't a perfect sort of love, but it was a start and she would be able to cope with that in mind. She would live. Her son would live and Pablo would ensure nothing befell them between now and their reunion in heaven's gardens.

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><p><strong>Extra:<strong>

"No Rascal! No!" Pablo shouted at his kitten.

Grabbing the feline, he realized the small creature had been trying to eat a baby bird.

"Bad kitty!" He scolded as he sent the frisky creature toward his and his mama's home.

Staring at the pathetic thing, Pablo picked the fragile creature up with both hands and clucked "Look at you, covered in kitty spit."

The bird's answer was to beat its tiny wings fussily. Running one slim finger down its body, Pablo promised the baby bird - a robin, he realized, "I'll take care of you."

And with that, Pablo took it into his home and found a coffee mug and cosy dishtowel to use to make the bird a nest. Once finished, he set the bird aside and went digging for worms.

An hour later, still rooting around in the garden, the boy heard his mama call for him. Getting up with a handful of worms, he went in to find his mama with her hands on her hips.

"What's this?" She demanded as she pointed at his baby bird.

Blinking, he took one of the worms and held it out for the robing to grab and eat. "My bird," he replied.

Eyes softening, his mama leaned in and smiled. "A robin!" She exclaimed with enthusiasm. "You know, Pablo, whatever you do to a robin will happen to you too."

"I didn't do anything!" The child argued. "Rascal was gonna eat 'im, so I picked him up and brought him inside to take care of instead!"_  
><em>

His mama laughed and brought him close for a hug. "What a good boy you are!" She cooed. "Someday, someone's going to help you out in a big way just like you have for this little robin."

Huffing, Pablo fought back a smile and said "_Si, _mama."

So many years would pass between the summer he raised the robin and the day a kind old man helped him get to an interview on time for a job as a broom designer for the biggest broom manufacture this side of the Atlantic, that Pablo would all but forget his mama's words.

That is, he'd forget until he learned the codename for the broom he'd be helping design.

Robin.

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><p><strong>I'm really into OCs at the moment. Who knows why, eh? Maybe I'm getting ready for the shift to original fiction ;)<strong>

**Anyway, let me know what you think!  
><strong>

**Thank you all very much for reading and please review!**


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